Choosing the Path
by Higuchimon
Summary: Hayato has to make a phone call before he goes off to Industrial Illusions.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.  
><strong>Fandom:<strong> Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
><strong>Title:<strong> Choosing the Path  
><strong>Family:<strong> Hayato, Mr. Maeda  
><strong>Word Count:<strong> 2,026||**Status:** Complete  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Family||**Rated:** G  
><strong>Feedback:<strong> All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Hayato has to make a phone call before he goes off to Industrial Illusions.

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><p>Principal Samejima'd left him in the office to make his phone call. Hayato stared at the buttons, glad that only Death Koala was there to see him. <em>I don't think I could do this if Juudai or Shou were here.<em> He wasn't sure what they were doing now, anyway, but as long as it wasn't being here, he thought he could do this.

More than that, he wanted to do this alone. He drew in a breath and flung his shoulders back, standing as straight as he could. _I'm sixteen. If I'm old enough to help run the family business, I'm old enough for this._ He hoped that would be a convincing enough argument. He would need several of those.

Determination guided his fingers as he tapped out his home phone number and waited for his father to answer. One of the windows in the office leaned open, letting in not only the warm summer air but the thin, distant sound of waves on the beach. Hayato could hear the calls of other students, laughing and playing and dueling one another. He did his best to focus on the phone, however. This was more important.

"Hayato." Maeda Kumazo appeared on the screen, arms folded over his chest, the usual stern look in his eyes. "How are your exams going?"

That was just like his father, wanting to know about his grades first. Hayato couldn't blame him, in truth. He managed a smile, though, one that was a little weaker than he liked, but it was a smile all the same. "Hello, dad. Principal Samejima exempted me from them this year."

He was about to go on and explain when his father's eyes narrowed. "You're not taking them?"

This was going to be interesting to try to explain. "Well, you see…I don't actually have to."

Before he had a chance to say another word, his father leaned closer, eyes narrowed even more. "And why not? After all that you did to stay there, you're just going to quit?"

"Not exactly." Hayato clenched his hands together and took another mental breath. "I don't have to take them because I've got a job. I'm going to work for Industrial Illusions as a card designer. President Pegasus hired me himself." He _still _couldn't believe that happened in the first place. He wondered if his arm had bruised from all the times he'd pinched it since then.

Silence rang from his father for a few moments as the older man stared at him. Hayato didn't fidget. He couldn't let himself fidget. "A card designer."

"That's right." Hayato nodded and pulled out his deck. It only took him a moment or two to find the right card and turn it so his father could see it. "Ayers Rock Sunrise is my first card ever."

Again there was silence and he could all but see the thoughts working behind his father's eyes. "Do you have a place to stay?"

"Yes." He nodded sharply; a package from Industrial Illusions had arrived just a short while earlier. "President Pegasus owns an apartment building there and he's arranged for me to have one of the apartments. He sent me pictures of it." He fumbled into the package where it lay before him on the table and pulled out a slender memory stick, staring at it for a moment. _Well, that's not going to do any good for him to see it._ "I'll e-mail them to you later. But it looks great."

There was a hint of a nod, but his father's questions weren't over with yet. "And your English? Is it good enough for a permanent job like that? It is permanent, isn't it?"

That was something Hayato'd wondered about himself, at least where the language was concerned. "I don't think I'll have any problems." His dueling wasn't the finest ever, no matter how much he'd improved, but he did enjoy languages almost as much as he did art. "I'll have a lot of time to practice there anyway."

Again a nod. "And it's permanent?" He wasn't going to get away with not answering this one, it seemed.

"Yes. President Pegasus always wants good card designers." He recalled something else that the older man'd told him. "You should get some papers in the mail yourself soon. You'll have to sign them and send them back to him." He couldn't help a hint of a twitch of his feet at this. "Because I'm sixteen, you have to sign the permission slips so I can take this job."

That, in and of itself, explained part of why he'd called his father in the first place. Being old enough to work in Japan didn't mean old enough to work in America, after all.

His father nodded briefly. "Hayato. Are you certain this is what you want do with your life? I know you love to draw, but you spoke about being a pro duelist." _Like I was_, the words were unspoken, but Hayato knew they were there nevertheless.

Hayato shifted and bent his head. "I know. But I don't think I'll ever be as good as you were." He'd improved; he knew that without a doubt. Juudai'd helped, as had practice and belief in himself. And meeting Death Koala in person. Again his gaze shifted over to where his partner sat waiting patiently for him to finish so they could leave. "But I don't think I need to be, either. This is something that I want. This is something for _me_."

"Even after everything that happened when I came there? You're going to leave those friends of yours behind?"

That hadn't escaped Hayato's attention either. "They'll be all right without me." That went without saying, of course. "I _want_to do this. I really do." He couldn't even begin to say how much he wanted this or how much it fit all the dreams he'd never dared admit he had in the first place. He'd wanted to be a pro, of course, to make his father proud of him. He'd never thought there could be another path to that.

Until now, at least.

His father was quiet for so long Hayato double-checked the connection. He searched for something else to say, another argument that would reassure him that his father understood why he was doing this. "I think mother would want me to do this too."

For a moment, he wondered if that were the wrong thing to say. His father didn't answer. But when he did speak, there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "I think you're right." Neither of them spoke much of his mother; she'd died when Hayato was very young, after all.

_I wonder if that's why he wanted me to work with him so much. I think…I think he might be afraid of losing all of his family._ From his earliest memories, his parents loved one another very much, and there were scattered images of his father's devastation when his mother died. Not so many, for Kumazo kept his grief to himself as much as he could, but enough so that Hayato thought he was right.

"When will you be able to visit?" His father asked now and Hayato considered it. He hadn't thought about that before.

"I'm not sure right now. I'm going to be leaving for California whenever you send those papers back." Knowing how Pegasus worked, he suspected that would be extremely soon. "But I'll keep in touch. President Pegasus promised me a company laptop and the apartment will have a telephone in it too." As much as he wanted his independence, Hayato didn't want to never talk to his father again.

"Don't spend all of your paycheck on phone calls." Hayato couldn't help a smile at that. His father approved! His father was going to let him do this! He kept himself from jumping up and down, though he wasn't entirely certain of how he did so. His father hadn't finished speaking, after all. "I want you to take care of yourself there, Hayato. Don't get into trouble."

"I won't, dad." Hayato wasn't sure what kind of trouble his father thought he could get into, but he would make certain not to do it anyway. "I'll call you once I get everything set up there. Probably in a few more days." Everything was happening so very fast. He expected he would be on the plane to California within just a few days, if not sooner. He might not even be at Duel Academia long enough to see who the Kaiser chose for his final opponent. He wondered if Principal Samejima could tape the last duel and send him a copy of it. It wouldn't hurt to ask.

Kumazo nodded, his eyes now narrowed in a different way, one that Hayato'd seen before. His father's next question therefore didn't surprise him at all. "Do you suppose President Pegasus would like a box of our sake? As a thank you gift."

"I think he'd like that." That, in Hayato's mind, was something of an understatement. He opened his mouth to say something else. The words vanished from his lips a moment later as he saw Drunken Angel appear behind his father, the ever-present bottle in one hand.

"Did I hear someone say sake?" The monster murmured. Hayato thought his father's eyebrow twitched just the faintest bit and wondered if he'd actually heard that. "Sake? I want some booze!"

Hayato smothered a laugh and made up his mind. "I really should go, dad. I've got to finish getting ready." That wasn't entirely a lie. He did want to say good-bye to his friends properly and talk to the principal about the last duel of the year.

He hesitated just for a moment before he straightened himself to his full height and met his father's eyes. "Dad, thank you. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for you. I wouldn't even be able to do it if you didn't let me stay here in the first place." The next words wanted to choke in his throat; they weren't ones he was used to speaking, after all. But he insisted on saying them nevertheless. "I love you, dad. And I'll make you proud of me, I promise."

Hayato already had an idea on how he would do that. The idea itself needed refinement, being more of a vague thought than a true idea, but he thought he had time to work out the details. His father's birthday was still a few months away and a personalized card would make a great gift.

Kumazo slowly, warmly smiled at him. "Hayato, you don't have to try to do that. You already have made me proud of you. You always have." Hayato could tell his father chose his next words with all the care that he himself had done so. "I love you, son."

Hayato didn't care about the tears that suddenly spilled down his cheeks. He rubbed at them enough so he could talk and smiled nevertheless. "I'll talk to you soon, dad. Bye."

"Good-bye." His father nodded and the connection broke. Hayato leaned against the table, heart beating fast and tears of joy still on his cheeks. He rubbed them away and breathed out a deep sigh. He couldn't imagine what his life might've been like if his father hadn't reacted the way he had. _Guess it's good I don't have to._

Death Koala nuzzled against him and Hayato absently reached up to rub his partner's ears. "We're going on a trip, buddy, and I don't think we're coming back here. Not for a while, anyway." Death Koala said nothing but that wasn't so surprising; he never did. Hayato gathered up everything and moved over to the window for a moment. He wasn't too surprised to see Juudai and Shou out there playing on the beach, laughing and joking.

_I'm going to miss them._ Words couldn't say how much he would, but he knew he needed to take this chance. Whatever the future held for them, _his_future led away from here. To California. To Industrial Illusions.

To everything he'd ever wanted.


End file.
